The birthday cake

This year I decided that I would not buy birthday cakes. I wanted to save, and wasn’t going to spend money on things I could do myself. In January, my friend sent money for my son’s cake and I thought I would be misappropriating funds if I didn’t use it for its intended purpose, so we bought the cake. In February I baked the cake for my husband’s birthday, which turned out to be a catastrophe. I was going to bake one for myself too in August, but my husband had already ordered from a shop. On my daughter’s second birthday in November, I decided to stick to my resolution and baked a nice red velvet cake. I could see my husband was worried when I declared I would bake again, but for the sake of world peace he decided to zip it. I do very well when I have a recipe. Unfortunately I cannot ice a cake to save my life. I had all the ingredients for butter icing with me but just could not crack it. It did not help that temperatures were extremely high on the day, in their 40s and the icing just dripped left right and centre. There was more of it on the tray than on the cake.

Still we were able to put two little candles on it, placed the birthday girl next to it and she led us in singing “Happy birthday to you!” She wasn’t even aware that she had the ugliest birthday cake in the world. She was happy. So was I. Even though I was a little embarrassed about my atrocious handiwork, seeing her look so joyous, quite oblivious of my misgivings really melted my heart, I guess in the same way the icing melted from the cake. Although it wasn't easy on the eye, it was quite nice and fluffy inside.

Hopefully when she is 21, and looks at that cake my daughter won’t roll her eyes and say, “Duh that cake is like so ghastly! Why didn’t you just buy one?” I hope the message she gets from that cake is it was made with love, and Mum is a fighter. She must have known she wasn’t good at icing but that didn’t stop her from trying.

As the year draws to a close, I still vow not to buy birthday cakes next year. I will find someone to teach me how to ice properly so that my kids never feel they have to hide birthday pictures because of the hideous cakes mummy made.